HOT DOG!

Great Gear, Budget Prices!

• En­ergy level - Very ac­tive: The AKC de­scribes a strong and ath­letic lit­tle dog who loves phys­i­cal ac­tiv­ity and is hap­pi­est when he has a job to do.

• Barks when nec­es­sary

De­spite be­ing Queen El­iz­a­beth ll’s favoured com­pan­ion, the Corgi’s roots lie not in mar­ble halls and gilded bed­cham­bers but in the mud-and-ma­nure-caked cor­rals and dirt-floored huts of 12th-cen­tury Wales. One the­ory is that the name corgi de­rives from cur; another that the name was a blend­ing of the Welsh cor (dwarf) and ci (dog). At any rate, dwarf dogs they were, bred low but fast to work cat­tle and other live­stock, and to kill rats in homes and sta­bles. Many Cor­gis will show a ten­dency to herd and guard—not sur­pris­ing con­sid­er­ing their her­itage. Their lively dis­po­si­tion and win­ning per­son­al­i­ties in a com­pact pack­age have won them many fans, royal and oth­er­wise. Deb­o­rah S. Harper, au­thor of The New Com­plete Pem­broke Welsh Corgi, praises this “en­er­getic dog, full of life, quick in movement and mind,” not­ing that the Corgi, while al­ways ready for the task at hand, “does not in­dulge in tire­some per­pet­ual mo­tion.” Stan­ley Coren in­cludes Cor­gis in the “Clever Dogs” group, writ­ing, “These in­tel­li­gent dogs have a work ethic and will­ing­ness to learn that make them among the eas­i­est breeds to train…they are most of­ten suc­cess­ful when com­plex ac­tiv­i­ties have to be learned.” These ac­tive, train­able dogs ex­cel at an ar­ray of ca­nine sports. As for their good looks, they pos­sess a thick dou­ble coat (yes, they shed) and weigh up to 30 pounds.